The government has keep us pretty well occupied over the last few days, like a parent dangling a set of keys in front of a baby’s eyes – ooh, look at the shiny… meanwhile what are they up to?
I have a news flash for you – the government isn’t in the business of keeping us from being offended – they may want us to think that, but they’re not.
Nowhere in the constitution does it say we’re guaranteed freedom from offense. and I guess it’s a pretty good thing, too. I don’t know about you, but if I tried to be avoid being offended, I’d have to stay in my house most of the time. Walk into a store and see grown-up folks wearing shirts with filthy words or nudity on them (sometimes with little kids with them- yeah, that’s a sign of great parenting right there); or hear people using filthy language in public- I don’t like hearing it, but I don’t walk up and say ‘you’re offending me’ – I do my best to ignore it and walk on – (sometimes speaking would mean taking my life into my hands). I can just Clorox my ears out when I get home. If I happen to have young children with me when it happens, I use that as a teaching tool: those people weren’t raised to know any better than to use ugly language.
I see a lot of offensive stuff here on Facebook too- I guess I could delete everybody who’s said or shared something that I disagree with- but that would leave me with a pretty short list of folks- and lots of them are people I love a lot – so I look over those things, or we discuss them – sometimes it makes me so angry that I *can’t* discuss it so I just have to put it on a shelf for a later day. Sometimes it’s young kids who are jumping on the latest bandwagon of whatever is considered cool today; sometimes it’s politics or religion (or the lack thereof).
I’ve even had supposedly tolerant people make the statement ‘if you don’t agree with me, go ahead and delete me now so I won’t have to delete you and your filth’ (paraphrasing). Again, I care about those folks too much to take them at their word – if they delete me, fine, but I’m not deleting them. It’s their choice.
Now here’s a shocker – I am a Christian and I believe in the Biblical view of things. If the Bible calls it sin, then it’s sin. That’s not up for debate. Drunkenness, divorce, abortion,stealing, murder, dishonoring your parents, homosexuality, lying, hate, laziness, adultery, fornication, being spiteful, unforgiveness – all those things and more are sin according to the Bible.
If you’re not a Christian, that’s your choice. I’m not going to hammer you for your choice, so don’t hammer me for mine. Don’t comment on this post about all the “crazy” things the Bible says – it’s not up for debate.
There are things in the Bible that I don’t understand the reasoning behind- other things I’ve had the opportunity to study and I *do* understand, at least partly. if you just want to randomly quote scripture at me so you can show how smart you are, or how ridiculous the Bible is, don’t bother. if you want to discuss it, that’s fine. I’ll be glad to either tell you what I know about what it says, or I can research and talk to folks who are more knowledgeable than me, and we can discuss it. Not so I can show you how smart I am, but to show you that things are in there for a reason, if we’ll just look for it and be willing to study it.
I’m a Christian because I know I can’t get through this life on my own. I know I’ve messed up way more than anybody but me realizes. I’ve done things in my life I”m ashamed of and wish I could go back and change.
even the folks who know me very well, don’t know all the things I’ve thought and done – but I know that Jesus has forgiven me, not because I deserve it, but because He loved me enough. I’ve tried to make things right with the people I’ve hurt – sometimes it’s worked and sometimes it hasn’t – but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.
so…. if you’re on my list, it means I care about you- care enough to agree to disagree with you- hopefully at some point we can come to an agreement, but either way I care about you.